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COTTON HOLDERS SOLID. If They Have the Goods They Can Get Cash. One of the best authorities on cotton expresses himself as follows: “The holders of small remnant of spot cotton in the south, whether it be high grade or low grade, have only to exercise a little patience to realize much higher prices. “The demand for cotton goods is enormous. It would absorb a crop of 15,000,000, if it were available. A crop of 13,000,000 means acute scarc ity, and 14,000,000 a bare sufficiency. Because gold is depreciating, the value of cotton, as expressed in terms of gold, is sure to rise. Manufactur ers are selling their product on a basis which allows them to pay from 15 to 20 cents for cotton, and they are perfectly willing to pay those prices if they cannot buy for less. “The vagarious reactions of a dis credited future market need disturb no bona fide holder of cotton, and sooner or later the future market it self will respond to the radical con ditions existing, and its response will be all the more sensational because of its long repression.” The above is, of course, encourage ment for the actual holder of cotton — not for speculators. * IMMIGRATION COMMISSION. Congress authorized the appoint ment of a commission of nine to study and report the immigration situation both in this country and in Europe. This commission is to consist of three senators, three members of the house of representatives and three civilians to be named by the president. Sena tor McLaurin, of Mississippi, was com pelled by home affairs to decline a place on the commission, and so Sena tors Dillingham, of Vermont, Lodge, of Massachusetts and Latimer, of South Carolina, were named. The house commissioners are Howell, of New Jersey, Bennett, of New York, and Burnett, of Alabama. The president has not yet announced the three ap pointments he is to make. When he does he is to name their salaries. The ex penses of the congressional members of the commission will be paid, and it is expected that the commission will visit every country in Europe from which immigrants come to us. ■e A NEW FARMERS’ UNION. (Chicago Journal.) Former attempts to unionize the farmers of the United States have generally ended in politics and disaster. The Grange and the Farmers’ Aliance, while they lasted, had some power, but they passed away, as soon as politicians began to control them. The “Farmers’ Union,” recently born in Texas, and now numbering nearly 1,000,000 members, is organized on different lines. Instead of trying to force down the prices of goods they buy, its members aim to get bet ter prices for what they sell. They aim, by cutting out middlemen in both buying and selling, to get the best possible prices for farm products. The new “Farmers’ Union” is alli ed with the labor organizations of the various states and with the American Federation of Labor. The union is strongest as yet in the south and west, but if present gains continue for a year there will be 4,000,000 organized farmers in America, or nearly 50 per cent of the entire farming population. This Is perhaps the first time that farmers have entered the ranks of union labor for the avowed purpose of forcing up prices. The theory of the new union is that if working men, in all branches of industry, receive high wages they can pay higher prices for farm products and will consume more of them. The farmer and artisan thus pool their interests. The main purpose of the Farmers’ Union is to make prices for farm prod ucts. The farmers have learned, by repeated experiments, that they can beat grain and cotton speculators at their own game. When prices are low, they can, through organization, hold back their crops until normal prices again prevail. Even with partial or ganization they have done this repeat edly in the south. Another aim is to establish a system of exchange by which surplus crops of one section may be shifted to other sections where there is a shortage, without giving all the profits to middlemen. The princi ple is to corner the market on the farm, and not in boards of trade. R SOUTHERN FAIR CIRCUIT. (Nashville Banner.) A charter registered recently at the court was that of the southern fair circuit. The incorporators are R. M. Williams, T. B. Anderton, N. C. Collier, F. D. Chaffin, W. F. Garth and Harry S. Stokes. The capital stock is placed at $2,000. The corporate purposes are stated to be those of promoting agri culture, etc., and improving the live stock of the country. This association will, as has been published, have charge of the southern fairs to be held next fall. THE FEED OF A HORSE. (Dr. Butler, of Raleigh.) Dr. Butler: “An average ration for a thousand pound horse doing very hard work, is about 15 pounds of grain and 12 to 15 pounds of hay. Instead of 15 pounds of fodder and 15 founds of corn, I would take 5 pounds of pea vine hay and 7 to 8 pounds of stover, and then add 10 pounds of corn and 2 pounds of cotton seed meal, and get better results. If I had oats to feed and had some peavine hay or clover hay, I do not think I would feed any cotton seed meal at all, because it is bad to feed unless you can mix it with something else. If I did not have any peavine or clover hay, I would certain ly put some cotton seed meal in the ration of a hard working horse, unless I had plenty of oats, and they were cheap.” This is important testimony from the highest authority, and should in terest every farmer and horse owner in the south. We send thousands of dollars into the northwest every year for corn. We send into the northwest every year thousands of dollars worth of our cotton seed meal. Nobody is benefited by this but the railroads. If we keep our cotton seed meal at home to feed it will help us, and Dr. Butler says it will help our horses — and Dr. Butler knows. LOW FARES IN WISCONSIN. Madison, Wis. —The state railway commission has handed down a deci sion in the two cent railroad fare question. It is ordered by the com mission that the railways in the state give a flat two and one-half cent pas senger fare, and it is recommended that family mileage books of 500 miles be issued for $lO. The last legislature enacted a law creating the state railway commission with power to fix rates and regulate service. The decision just handed down Is the result of an extended hearing before the state railway com mission, during which time represen tatives of the various railways operat ing in Wisconsin have appeared be fore the commission, when the ques tions of rates and service were thor oughly reviewed. THE WEEKLY JEFFERSONIAN. TO HIRE IMMIGRANTS. Negro Plantation Laborers Will Be Supplanted By White Immigrants. (By Associated Press.) Baton Rouge, La., March. —A plan which contemplates supplanting negro plantation laborers of Louisiana with state imported white immigrants from Europe has been announced by Charles Schuler, state commissioner of immigration and agriculture. This plan is an outgrowth, both of the im migration station authorized for New Orleans by congress and the fact that labor is scarce. The state proposes to enable the Louisiana planter to engage immi grant labor in advance and with a fix ed wage without violating the contract labor law. By July 15 next every planter desiring such labor is to de posit $l5O for every family he wishes, this sum to be a guarantee that he will repay the state for its expense in bringing over the immigrants. A state employe will then engage in Europe the required number of immigrants and the state will pay their way to this country. NEED OF FARM LABOR. (Senator Latimer of S. C.) “The matter of immigration is not only of vital importance to the whole nation, but to us of the south, it is of extraordinary interest.” “For that reason I appreciate being a member of the commission author ized to examine into conditions both here and in Europe. The senatorial members of the commission are Sena tors Lodge, Dillingham and myself; from the house are Messrs. Howell, of New Jersey, Bennett, of New York, and Burnett, of Alabama. Then there are to be three commissioners from private life, to be named by the presi dent. I do not know just when we will meet to form our organization, but we will be compelled to await the president’s action in the matter of ap pointing the rest of the commission. “My opinion is that the majority of southern people are anxious to secure labor from foreign countries if we can get the right sort of immigrants. “Perhaps an influx of Europeans will help us to solve the negro ques tion in the south. In my state we have 700,000 negroes, as against some thing more than 500,000 whites. I be lieve the proportion is about the same in Mississippi. All over the south the cry is for more labor. The negroes are deserting the farms, preferring life in the towns or seeking employ ment in railroad or lumber camps. I was obliged to let a considerable amount of land go uncultivated this year because of the inability to se cure farm laborers.” R ENDORSED IN LOUISIANA. Hardshell, La., March 9, 1907. Hardshell, F. E. C. Union No. 136 met in regular session and the follow ing resolution was offered by A. M. Nichols, our lecturer: We, the Farmers’ Union of Hard shell Union, No. 136, of Vernon par ish, La., do most heartily endorse the great speech made by that most wor thy son of Georgia, Hon. Thomas E. Watson, in Atlanta on the night of January 22, 1907. Resolved, first, That we also most heartily appreciate and hail with joy his willingness to co-operate with us and help us in our strenuous efforts to throw off the chains of slavery which bind the toiling millions to the moneyed oligarchy of Wall street, New York City Second, That we know we have in Mr. Watson a friend that has been weighed and not found wanting. Third, That we believe that it would be a blessing to every farmer and laborer in Louisiana and the en tire south land to subscribe for his papers, known as the Jeffersonian Magazine and the Weekly Jefferson ian. Both are defending the rights of the common people and pleading for the cause of millions yet unborn. Fourth, That we invite Mr. Watson to come to Leesville, La., that we might hear him deliver one of his great speeches to the Farmers’ Union of this parish. Fifth, That we send a copy of these resolutions to the Co-operator and the Weekly Jeffersonian for publication. Respectfully submitted, A. M. NICHOLS, Lecturer Hardshell Union No. 136, and endorsed by the union in regular session. R I RUINED BY CAR SHORTAGE. Reports from Indian Territory state that millions of bushels of corn are rotting because of lack of freight cars. At one station 400,000 bushels await shipment. The agent says not an emp ty car has been there for ninety days. At another point 60,000 bushels are piled on the ground. Three weeks of rain have left the corn in the middle of a small lake, where it is decaying in the mud and water. Similar con ditions are general throughout the Territory. As a result farmers are being ruined and their distress is in turn affecting banks and elevators. To aggravate the case local shippers say the car famine is unnecessary. They assert that with a little fore thought and management the railroads could have sent back the cars used in shipping the cotton crop, thus saving ail this loss. It was to cover exactly such a situa tion that the Car Shortage bill of Representative William Randolph Hearst was introduced. Under the present law the burden is on the ship per to prove that he is being discrim inated against—that some other ship per is receiving more cars. This con sumes time. If the railroads desire to fight the case, the delay can be protracted indefinitely, which defeats the whole object of the law. In a car famine relief is needed at once. The Hearst bill would change all this. The burden is placed upon the railroad. The shipper does not need to show discrimination. He only has to apply for the cars and the road must either furnish them at once or show an adequate reason why it can not. With such a bill enacted into law, the Indian Territory farmers could go to the courts for a mandamus to com pel the railroads to supply cars. The roads then w r ould have to find away to overcome the mismanagement which prevented the empty cotton cars from returning. A court order may some times advance efficiency, as well as correct injustice. The Indian Territory case is only an example of what is happening all over the west, and to some extent throughout the country. Car short age is one more count in the indict ment against railway management In the case of the Standard Oil, in the anthracite coal regions, and in numberless other instances, the rail roads deliberately withhold cars for the purpose of destroying independent shippers. In purloining most of the provis ions of Mr. Hearst’s original rate bill, and then amending them to meet polit ical exigencies without harming the railroads, the administration party in congress failed to cover the car short age feature. It is to remedy this de fect that the present Hearst bill has been introduced. Until it is passed, or some measure modeled after it, the car famine evil will continue and become aggravated.—N. Y. American. 7